Bronze swords: history, names, photos, area of finds. Bronze swords from France What weapons did Cretan craftsmen of the Bronze Age make?
Archeology of weapons. From the Bronze Age to the Renaissance Oakeshott Ewart
Chapter 1 "Ruthless Bronze"
"Ruthless Bronze"
When at the beginning of the second millennium BC. e. Indo-Europeans set out to conquer Ancient world, they brought with them a new concept of warfare based on the use of fast horse-drawn chariots. The carts were driven by charioteers, and warriors armed with bows sat next to them. The emergence of new fighting techniques and, as a consequence, the emergence of new weapons (or at least the modernization of old ones) give new ideas to archaeologists. However, it cannot be said that they had to restore the appearance of ancient chariots based on the results of excavations; for this we should thank the Sumerians, who left behind so many red clay vessels belonging to the early dynastic period I (3500 BC). The walls of the vessels depict light two-wheeled carts with a high front, pulled by donkeys or cattle. Thanks to the discovery from the royal tombs of the city of Ur, we can clearly imagine these chariots with solid wheels (two half-discs connected together on an axle). They were probably very slow and clumsy carts, but even in this form they struck fear into the enemies of the Sumerians. First of all, speed mattered. A cart pulled by a pair, even if several warriors were sitting in it, could move faster than a walking person. The effect of surprise arose, and, taking advantage of it, the warriors defeated a large army even before the foot fighters had time to come to their senses and understand what was happening. The terrifying roar of heavy wheels, the roar of bulls and war cries were supposed to sow panic even before their approach, then throwing weapons were used - and the battle actually ended even before the troops converged at a sufficient distance for hand-to-hand combat. People accustomed to fighting on foot had neither the necessary skills nor weapons specifically adapted to withstand an unfamiliar threat, so they could do nothing against the conquerors, who owed their success almost exclusively to fighting techniques unfamiliar to others.
At the very beginning of the 2nd century. chariots, but with modifications, were also used in Asia Minor. The inhabitants of this region had light carts on wheels with spokes, drawn by a pair of horses, i.e., transport was much faster than the heavy, awkward-wheeled carts of the Indo-European tribes. Soon after, similar chariots appeared in the states of the Aegean Sea. They found themselves in Greece itself before 1500 BC. e., and in Crete - around 1450 BC. e. A century or so later, according to some accounts, Achaean youths from noble families went to the Gittite capital to train in chariot driving.
Rice. 1. Chariot from the tomb at Mycenae
During the Old and Middle Kingdoms, the Egyptians did not know chariots, but between 1750 and 1580. BC e., that is, for about a couple of centuries, their country was occupied by Asians who called themselves Hyksos. The invaders, an Indo-European people, used chariots, so soon after the energetic rulers of Thebes drove them from the Delta around 1580, Egyptian soldiers also adopted this method of warfare. The first pharaoh to attack Palestine (Amenhotep I, 1550) used well-trained chariot troops as the first strike force during his victorious campaigns. After this, for another 150 years, the rulers of Egypt, one after another, sent their troops north to Syria, until by 1400 all the lands up to the Euphrates submitted to them. Then the inevitable decline began, the Egyptians had to fight such an impressive force as the Indo-European tribes of the Hittites, who by 1270 had become a powerful nation. In a grandiose clash that occurred between two peoples in the 13th century BC. e., the outcome of the battle was decided by chariots, just as in the 13th century new era everything was decided in a duel between mounted knights.
Everyone is familiar with the appearance of Egyptian carts, images of which are often found in reliefs on the walls of temples and tombs. The Cretan and Mycenaean variants are less familiar to most people, although they can also be seen in various works of art of the Minoan-Mycenaean period (Fig. 1). Several real chariots survive in Egypt, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York exhibits an Etruscan chariot clad in bronze. It was found during excavations in Monteleone, Italy. However, most likely, it was not used in war, but participated in ceremonies, since in the 7th century. BC e. Civilized inhabitants of the Mediterranean used such carts for sporting or ceremonial purposes. The ancient traditions were continued by the barbarians, in particular the inhabitants of the Celtic West, who preserved them until the beginning of the British campaigns of conquest under the leadership of Agricola. There are many literary sources describing the design of Celtic chariots and confirmed by archaeological finds obtained from excavations of the graves of leaders.
Thus, for more than a thousand years, glorious charioteers around the world decided the outcome of the battle. Then, in the 4th century. BC e., army units appeared, in many ways similar to the ancient Egyptian ones, but infinitely more formidable in appearance - these were the Roman legions. A little time passed before the pendulum of history swung in the other direction and the legionnaires began to sweep away everything in their path. For the next 600 years, the Roman infantry was practically the only military force a force to be reckoned with in the civilized world, but even so, beyond their northern and eastern borders lived entire nations of unruly barbarians. Ammianus Marcellinus around 400 AD. e. wrote:
“At that time, even as the Romans celebrated their victory all over the world, the frantic tribes were agitated and prepared to rush forward, expanding their dominions.”
These nations turned out to be the force that eventually forced the same pendulum into motion again; barbarians filled the empire and no longer acted with the help of chariots, as before, but with the help of heavy cavalry. Weapons designed for direct contact with the enemy again became the main weapon until English archers with yard-long arrows weakened their influence in the 14th century. It finally fell out of use after, with the improvement of gunpowder in the 15th century, a fundamentally new concept of warfare appeared.
There have been many generalizations in my reasoning so far; My excuse is that in this book it was necessary to at least mention the amazing events that preceded the Middle Ages. Another reason is that there were only two periods in history when personal weapons intended for combat (if made well) were also beautiful. One of these periods belongs to the end of the Middle Ages, since in the second half of the 15th century. Almost any weapon or element of armor made by a good craftsman was made beautifully - in form, and not in ornament. We will learn about this later; but the second period refers to prehistoric times. During what can be relatively imprecisely called the Celtic Iron Age (or, more specifically, the La Tène culture), weapons and armor, although much less common than in the 15th century, were distinguished by the perfection of form and were also decorated with unusually impressive , masterful drawings. I regret that I have to do without illustrations and limit myself to a simple description, despite the fact that this is extremely insufficient. These things are great works of art, and talking about them in words is completely inappropriate. You just need to see them - they are akin to the best that human culture has been able to produce in the field of beauty. Weapons that were a constant companion, an unchanging accessory Everyday life and protector, they were made with love, and each item had an unconditional individuality. Among the products of the Ancient World, there are similar ones, but none are absolutely repeating - the masters put all their imagination into creating works that are certainly worth looking at.
The basis of all battle tactics, which remained unchanged for approximately three thousand years, despite the advent of war chariots or - later - longbows, cannons or muskets, was hand-to-hand combat, in which the weapons were the sword and shield. Early Bronze Age people used large round shields and excellent swords, suitable for both offense and defense. On vases created in Greece during the classical period, you can see scenes of battles using these weapons. The clans of the Scottish Highlands fought in the same way, using broadswords and small round shields.
The shield itself is the simplest and most primitive type of defensive weapon. It doesn't take much imagination to imagine a Paleolithic hunter grabbing the first thing he could get his hands on, trying to defend himself from a flint-tipped spear thrown by an angry cave neighbor. It's not far from this to a wicker frame covered in leather. The shield is one of the most effective types equipment designed to protect against any enemy you can think of, while being absolutely universal in use. Therefore, this type of weapon survived in the highlands of Scotland until the 17th century, and even today still exists in its original form in those parts of the world where people live at a sufficient distance from the delights of ballistic weapons, which are well known to modern civilization.
Western round shields, dating back to the Bronze Age, were usually flat, with a diameter of approximately two feet. In the center there was a hole with a rivet, to which a strip intended for manual grip was attached to the inside. These are things made with great skill; The most common are shields decorated with rounded concentric grooves, with small protuberances scattered between them. When they were made, wet skin was stretched over a thin layer of metal, pressed against the furrows and left to dry. The skin was compressed, made rigid and perfectly fitted the bronze base of the shield, serving as additional protection. Probably, such items of equipment were worn exclusively by leaders and noble members of the clan, but we can safely assume that at that time any warrior who had a sword and shield was noble, because war was an elite occupation that required training that began from childhood and not ended before death (usually relatively early, since few people lived to old age in those turbulent times). Serious swordsmanship is an art that cannot be acquired in a day, and it develops skills that require constant development and improvement. Even firearms require some skill, so what about sword fighting, where everything depends on skill, composure and developed, honed reactions? If a farmer miraculously got a weapon, he could not always use it - only a well-trained warrior is capable of this.
In the Stone Age, people fought with axes and spears, but the sword was never classified as a primitive weapon; its earliest forms were as refined and elegant as its latest. In this sense, the Bronze Age is on the same level as the enlightened court of King Louis XV, despite the fact that they are separated by thirty centuries. The first metal tools were an ax and a knife, both of which, at least initially, were intended for household needs. At an early stage of technological improvement, things originally embodied in stone began to be made of metal. The knife turned into a spear after it was simply impaled on a long stick, and the first throwing weapon became an ax impaled on a shorter stick. Apparently, the prototype of the sword shape was the knives of Minoan Crete and Celtic Britain, since it appeared there at about the same time, between 1500 and 1100. BC e. Both Mediterranean and Western types of swords belonged to the category of piercing weapons, rapiers, but the fact that the ancestor of the latter was a knife is obvious. Attempts to increase the sharpness of these knives (or, if you prefer, daggers) led to a change in the shape of the blade: a narrow bronze knife equipped with a thin spike at the end was found in a mound in Helpperthorpe (Yorkshire) (Fig. 2, a). Most likely, it was originally the same shape as the blade drawn next to it. This can be argued by imagining how effective a knife of this shape would be in an attack. Apparently, a certain blacksmith came up with the idea of making the same thing, but only bigger and better. Whether this is true or not, one thing is certain: the earliest swords found in Western Europe looked exactly the same.
Rice. 2. a - bronze knife from Helpperthorpe (Yorkshire). It is shown how it is sharpened to form a point; b - blade of a similar knife, unsharpened
It was an excellent weapon; no country then produced anything that could compare with the sword that archaeologists discovered during excavations in Ireland (Fig. 2, b). It is approximately 30 inches long and no more than ? inches in the middle of the blade; cross section with a superb, complex diamond shape. Although the distribution of such finds is not limited to the territory of the British Isles, they were born here, and most likely in Ireland, since the best of them, and, in fact, the overwhelming majority in general, were discovered not somewhere else, but there .
Rice. 3. Early period bronze sword from Pence Pits, Somerset. Blackmore Collection, Salisbury
Some of these rapiers are kept in the collections of English museums. The copy that you see in Fig. 3, found in Somerset. It is quite short and really looks like a large, beautifully shaped dagger (the curves at the top are amazingly symmetrical). Along the blade there are two evenly separated grooves, rising past the bends to a fan-shaped peg, and here the hilt is attached with the help of two rivets. A similar rapier, but slightly larger, was discovered at Shapwick Down and is now in the British Museum. An even larger one, 27 inches long, was found in the Thames near Kew. It is kept in the Branford Museum (which has an excellent collection of bronze weapons). However, none of them can be compared with the sword from Lissen. The only thing worthy of such comparison is a sword from the island of Crete, discovered in a crypt from the late Minoan II period. Its blade is the same length as that of the Lissen sword, although slightly wider, and it has almost the same cross-section (see Fig. 10, a).
Rice. 4. Experimental type of sword. Mid Bronze Age. Found in France, currently in the Blackmore Collection, Salisbury
Rice. 5. Assembling the handle of a Cretan sword
Rapiers, found in Crete and Mycenae, are heavier weapons. Their blades are heavier and, for the most part, wider, and the method of attaching the hilt is better. The hilts of Celtic rapiers were attached to flat hangers with rivets. This was their weakness, since in a side impact there was little to prevent the rivets from piercing the thin layer of bronze and jumping out. In fact, more than half of the specimens found at Penn's Pits, for example, have one or more rivets pulled out in this manner. As long as this type of weapon was used only for stabbing, everything was fine, but the instinct in battle tells a person to cut the enemy, since the natural movement is to strike a segment of a circle, the center of which is the shoulder. The direct lunge is an art that has to be learned and is quickly forgotten in the heat of battle. It is possible that it was precisely this weak link of the rapier that prompted the craftsmen to make great efforts to strengthen the place where the blade and hilt are fastened. IN Eastern Europe many found various types swords, and in all cases it is clear that the hilt was gradually improved. A thousand years later, in the early iron Eek, signs of a new system of fastening the blade to the hilt became visible. Now the tang was a narrow rod that formed part of the blade; it went straight through the handle and curved at the top. An excellent example of this experimental type, found in France, is kept in the Blackmore collection, Salisbury (Fig. 4). Here the top of the shank is thickened rather than curved; it is possible that the handle was simply strips of leather wrapped around a tang between its thick end and the blade's shoulders, although the two rivet holes on these shoulders suggest something more substantial was used. Nevertheless, by the middle of the Bronze Age, a more reliable type of handle was developed: it was similar to the Minoan-Mycenaean version and, perhaps, originated from it. Although these Mycenaean swords were intended for stabbing, they were strong enough to be used for cutting when necessary. In Fig. 5 shows that the blade and thin shank were cast in one piece, and then they were lined on all sides with bone, wood, silver or gold plates, which were fastened with rivets in such a way as to form a reliable and comfortable handle. This type of hilt became universal throughout Europe, along with the blade, which remained unsurpassed both in terms of use in hand-to-hand combat and in the beauty of its outline and proportions. It was designed to be equally effective at stabbing and slashing, so the tip of the blade was long and sharp enough to inflict a mortal wound, while at the same time its edges were sharpened to be ideal for slashing. The curve leading to the handle was created with the expectation of making it possible, if necessary, to strike back, behind the back (Fig. 6).
Rice. 6. Bronze sword from Barrow. British museum
Apparently, during the Late Bronze Age (1100-900 BC) swords of this type were used throughout Europe, and regardless of whether they were large and powerful or rather small, their shape blades, similar to an elongated leaf, remained virtually unchanged. In addition to the size and the occasional presence of ornament, the difference between them was in the shape of the shoulders, that is, the place where the blade turned into the handle. By the end of the Bronze Age, other types of swords became popular, there are three different variants that were common to an extraordinary extent. large territory(Fig. 7). The origins of two of these - the long Hallstatt sword and the comparatively rare type which British archaeologists have called the "Carp's Tongue", originating in southern Britain - and the "Swede" or "Rhône Valley" sword can be traced to a specific area where the original appeared.
Rice. 7. Three swords from the late Bronze Age. Types: a - “Hallstatt”, b - “Carp Tongue”, c - “Rhone Valley”
In fact, the Hallstatt swords belong to the early Iron Age, and although the first products of this culture were cast in bronze, it will be more appropriate to move on to their consideration in the next chapter. The Carp's Tongue was a large weapon with a curious blade shape: its edges ran parallel to each other for two-thirds of its length, and then tapered sharply to the tip. Very beautiful sword This type was found in the Thames near Kew (Branford Museum). Most of these samples are found in the form of individual fragments, among the fragments and pieces that bronze lovers keep. Very few swords have survived in their entirety. Apparently these swords all formed a separate group - some of them are found in the south-east of England, others in France and Italy, but they are never found in central Europe or Scandinavia. In Fig. 8 shows one of them, especially interesting due to the fact that it has a preserved hilt and bronze scabbard. It was found in Paris, in the Seine, and is currently on display in the Army Museum.
Rice. 8. Bronze “Carp’s Tongue” from the Seine. Army Museum, Paris
Rhone Valley swords are for the most part relatively small. Some of them are more reminiscent of long daggers, but there are also quite massive specimens. Each of them has a handle cast from bronze according to an individual sample (Fig. 9). We see approximately such handles on Attic red-glazed vessels of the classical Greek period: they are clutched in the hands of warriors. These paintings are 500 years older than the bronze swords, which are obviously based on Greek designs. It is possible that they entered Hellas through the colonial ports in Marseille or the Antibes Islands or through other ports located near the mouth of the Rhone. Sword hilts of this type appear to be direct predecessors of the "antenna" and "anthropomorphic" items of the Late Bronze Age. Here the ends of the long pommel are divided into two long, thin tips, which bend inwards in the form of a spiral, sometimes in the form of a mustache, and sometimes in the form of a tight scroll of many rings or two branches, similar to human arms raised upward. Some of the antenna sword hilts resemble the Rhone Valley type and have what appears to be a short cross-guard, while others are more similar to the bronze hilts of Northern or Central Europe. Swords of this type have been found in Scandinavia, England, France and Moravia, but most come from Provence and Northern Italy. Similar swords, also originating from Italy, can be found in the late Hallstatt period.
Bronze swords from Scandinavia should be considered as a separate group, since they differ sharply from others in their superior quality and characteristic shape. They are traced more directly to Minoan-Mycenaean prototypes than any other Bronze Age sword. At this time, the Scandinavians had the closest cultural and trade ties with the Aegeans, and in fact the earliest examples of bronze swords to appear in the north may have been imported from the south. Regardless of whether this is true or not, the hilts of Danish swords from the early part of this period have characteristics inherent to Minoan swords, and all blades (which are usually long and very thin) have, like Mycenaean ones, a rigid edge running exactly along the center line of the blade . Nothing resembling Irish rapiers has been found in the north, but fencing practice appears to have been similar, for the elegant, long, narrow blades of these early swords and the finely defined central ribs clearly indicate that they were designed for thrusting. Like the Irish rapiers, these swords gave way to other designs, the blades of which were closer to the universal leaf shape, and the hilts were not made of solid cast bronze, but, like the usual European types, consisted of bone or wooden plates, riveted to a very strong, flared shank at the end. Towards the end of this middle period we discover massive blades that hardly bear any resemblance to the leaf-shaped examples: their edges run almost parallel, and their tips, although proportionate, cannot be called sharp. The technique is still admirable, but has become much simpler: swords are no longer as skillfully decorated and carefully designed as was done in an earlier period. They are just as obviously designed for slashing as their predecessors were for fencing (inset, photo 1).
Thus, we see that everywhere the first swords were intended for stabbing; evidence of this is provided by Mycenaean, Danish and Irish examples. Then, fencing gradually gives way to chopping - a more natural way of fighting that does not require special training, and, as a result, blades appear designed for delivering both piercing and chopping blows. Then, finally, fencing practically goes out of use, and swords begin to be made solely for chopping - this can be seen in the example of bronze swords of the late period (Halstatt type from Austria or Danish swords).
Rice. 9. The hilt of the sword “Rhone Valley”. Late Bronze Age. From Switzerland, now in the British Museum
IN last years Among Scandinavian archaeologists, many disputes arose and two schools emerged with opposing opinions on the question of the purpose of Bronze Age swords: they served for fencing or chopping. Adherents of each side strongly adhere to extreme views, but, unfortunately, their studies seem to cover only Scandinavian swords, while they try to apply their theories to the entire Bronze Age, regardless of the period or region in which the weapon was created . Meanwhile, such an approach seems to me to be fundamentally incorrect: it is necessary, for the sake of objectivity, to choose one of two - either study the history of Scandinavian swords of the Bronze Age and build theories in this area, or still consider the weapons of all countries in the indicated period and base your reasoning on from complete and detailed information, on the basis of which it is already possible to draw informed conclusions.
Rice. 10. Three swords of the early Bronze Age: a - Crete; b - Ireland; c - Denmark. Three mid-Bronze Age swords: d - England; e - Italy; f - Mycenae. Three Late Bronze Age swords: g - Great Britain; h - Denmark; i - Austria (Hallstatt)
Since the human element (the way in which the original owner used things that to us are merely "remnants") is so important in archeology, and proponents of opposing theories so resolutely shy away from exploring this point, it makes sense to dwell on this subject in more detail. Even with the most superficial study of materials on everything the Bronze Age it becomes completely clear that at first all swords were intended mainly for fencing; at a later time, they were made so that they could deliver both piercing and chopping blows, and in the last period, swords were created mainly for chopping. This happened everywhere and did not apply to any particular part of Europe. In Fig. 10 I have placed the nine main types of swords in succession, from the earliest to the latest, and, in my opinion, they themselves speak quite clearly of the intentions of their makers. Since the supporters of the "fencing" theory are more insistent in their claims to truth and, in addition, their opinions are the most limited and unsubstantiated, I will begin with them.
They base their claims on three main points, each of which we will discuss separately.
1. Bronze Age swords are said to have been designed for fencing "due to their narrow, pointed blades with thin, sharp edges, a hard median ridge or scar, and a weak connection between blade and hilt." We must think that they refer exclusively to early types of weapons, but at the same time they are trying to inspire confidence in us that this definition applies to all swords of the mentioned period. The unsubstantiation of this statement is clearly visible at one glance at the swords of the middle or late Bronze Age, which do not have narrow, pointed blades. The same objection applies to the “weak connection between the blade and the handle.” In early Danish swords, as in Irish rapiers, this connection was indeed quite fragile, since short cast bronze hilts were attached to the sword hangers only with rivets, in the Irish manner. However, in almost all swords of a later time, the tang (itself a handle, which had to be covered on all sides with plates of other materials solely for the sake of convenience) was cast along with the blade and was part of it, and thus in order to break it , it was necessary to break the blade itself. If the proponents of this theory did not try to apply a statement that was true for the beginning of the Bronze Age to the entire period, it would not raise any objections.
2. It is further stated that “none of the well-preserved Bronze Age sword blades show any nicks or other signs of use as a slashing weapon.” This is absurd. In the museums of Europe there are countless bronze swords on display, very well preserved and with serrations on the blades, which have a completely understandable origin; In addition, the blades show obvious marks of sharpening and polishing. However, there are no such marks on Scandinavian swords. Almost any weapon of the Scandinavian Bronze Age, be it a sword or an ax, shows no signs of wear, and the shields and helmets found there are thin and fragile, without the slightest dents. There is a consensus that this period for Scandinavia was something like a golden age: a peaceful, rich time, the flourishing of culture. Majestic and unworn swords and battle axes, beautiful, but thin and useless shields and helmets are good proof of this; not burdened by the need to wage war, these weapons were rather part of the ceremonial attire and a symbol of the rank of its owner.
Rice. 11. Warriors on intaglio from Mycenae
3. They refer to images of battle scenes from Mycenaean intaglios and from gold and stone, and they say that “in all illustrations, warriors use long swords in order to stab the enemy, and only for this purpose.” That's right. This is true on the intaglios, but they all date from 1700–1500. BC e., that is, the beginning of the Bronze Age, when the only method of combat was fencing, and they depict warriors living in an extremely limited region where swords were used only as piercing weapons, so this information adds little to our knowledge and do not help in any way to prove the above theory. There is one more thing to consider about these illustrations: they all had to occupy a very small space, the dimensions of which were strictly limited. If you look at some of them (for example, in Fig. 11), you will immediately see that the artist could not depict a man chopping his opponent: in this case, his hand and most of the sword would not fit in the picture. It happens that works of art are considered absolute proof, and at the same time the limitations imposed by circumstances on the artist are completely ignored - in this case, those associated with the depicted object.
Those who adhere to the "cutting theory" have more serious arguments, but they, in turn, ignore the existence of early fencing swords. The paradox is that these swords are one of the most powerful arguments in favor of the correctness of their opinion. As I said earlier, nine times out of ten the rivets on the hilts of British swords would pop out of place, piercing the layer of bronze on the blade, because the swords were used for other purposes, causing chopping blows. This is direct evidence that people had a natural preference for using such blows in battle with the enemy. By the way, it doesn’t matter at all that until the middle of the 18th century there was no fighting method that would rely only on fencing, without the use of chopping blows. Although Italian and Spanish fencing schools from the beginning of the 17th century. and then they relied mainly on stabbing blows; many attacks included a slashing blow. The sword, designed for stabbing, even though it required some skill to wield it, remained a primitive weapon; if they could cut with it, it stemmed from its weakness and inadequacy, and was not the result of the sophisticated mastery of the weapon that the owner possessed. Piercing-cutting swords, which did not break in the hands from a blow, arose as a result of the skill of the warriors and did not mean regression. Additional evidence that the transition from thrusting to thrusting swords was a well-thought-out step can be obtained by analyzing the composition of the metal from which they were made. At the beginning of the Bronze Age, the alloy from which these weapons were cast included on average 9.4% tin, while in later samples this amount reaches 10.6%. This alloy can be compared with the material from which in the 19th century. gun barrels were made and it is hardly possible to find anything stronger than that: gun metal consisted of copper and 8.25–10.7% tin. Thus, the swords of the late Bronze Age were no less strong than cannons, and were quite suitable for chopping.
Before we finish discussing this issue, we should consider it from a practical point of view, moving directly to weapons. It has been suggested more than once that in order to hold a Bronze Age sword, you need to have an extremely small hand, since its handle is very short. We all know very well that if a tool is held incorrectly, it will be very difficult, almost impossible to use for work (try giving a scythe to a person who does not know how to use it, and you will see what fantastic pirouettes he will do). On the other hand, if you hold the instrument correctly, you will instinctively know what to do. With the sword everything is exactly the same, perhaps even more so than with any other weapon created by man. If you pick up a Bronze Age sword, don't expect to feel the same way as using a 17th century sword. or a modern rapier. Otherwise you won't be able to appreciate what it is intended for. It is even less accurate to conclude that your hand is too big because all four fingers do not fit in the area between the pommel and the shoulders. These convexities were supposed to serve to strengthen the grip and, when used correctly, make it possible to hold tighter and better control the weapon. The squeeze is made with three fingers, the index finger moves forward and ends up under the shoulder, while the thumb firmly grips the handle on the other side. Now your sword is properly balanced, you can hold it firmly, you can control the movement and correctly feel him in his hand. With a good grip, it almost seems to invite you to hit something. It is very important to feel the weapon in your hand, understand how it works and how it is more convenient to use it. In some cases, it really seems that the sword is alive - it seems to suggest the correct movements, lunges and strikes, dictates behavior... but only if you know exactly how to hold it.
Rice. 12. Curved bronze sword from Zealand. National Museum, Copenhagen
Another thing that is often said to disparage such swords is that the main weight of the blade is on the front, concentrated too close to the tip, that it is poorly balanced, that it would be impossible to fence with them.” Of course this is absurd. Fencing has nothing to do with the style of fighting for which these swords were intended. It is possible that the closest similarity would be the saber techniques that cavalrymen used fifty years ago. No, for swords that were intended for such purposes as these (and which ones we can see on any of the countless examples of Greek pottery), the main weight had to be concentrated in the upper part of the blade for delivering both piercing and slashing blows. To cut, it had to be at the center of impact, or the “optimal impact point,” which simply meant that Weight Limit concentrated in the part of the blade that met the object that needed to be hit. If, when stabbing, the main weight of the blade falls on the front, then when you lunge, the sword tends forward from the shoulder, which helps to achieve the target and adds speed when striking. This statement is not based on theory, but is the result of many years of experimentation with all types of swords, carried out in order to find out what they are intended for and how they best perform their task.
There is one more type of sword that needs to be mentioned here. This is an exceptionally rare type of weapon; so far only three completely preserved examples of them have been found, a broken handle and a copy made of flint. I mean single-edged swords with a curved blade; in Fig. 12 shows one of them discovered in Zealand (now in Copenhagen), and the reader can see for himself what a strange weapon it is, and yet how effective it is! The sword is cast in one piece; the blade is almost ? inches in the back, on the bend there are two bronze balls and a large thickening. They serve to weight the blade for striking. This is a clumsy, but perhaps the most lethal sword. Single-edged swords were very popular in the north throughout the Iron Age, but they appear to have become rare in the Bronze Age. The flint copy of them looks absurd, but charming: it seems that, against all odds, artisans were trying to create an analogue of modern metal products. More best example The absurdity expressed in stone can be served by a copy, also made in Denmark (where, perhaps, the best flint tools in the world were made). This is a model of a bronze sword, made of several sections, each of them attached to a wooden axis! There simply cannot be anything funnier - this is a delightful product of its kind, but it is absolutely impossible to look at it calmly.
Please note that these swords have a small ring on the hilt. At first glance one might think that it would need to be inserted with the index finger for a more secure grip, but in reality it is on the wrong side: swords of this type would not fit in a scabbard and the ring was probably intended for a different kind of fastening. This sword is so similar to the example found in Scandinavia that it seems they could have come from the same workshop. Weapons of this type have not been found anywhere else, so one could assume that this is an original Danish type, but there is one difficulty: the decorations on the sword from Zealand strongly resemble the details of a dagger from Bohemia. However, this does not mean that they came from there: it is simply further evidence of the interconnection of cultures.
This text is an introductory fragment.Todaiji. Wood, bronze and stone Cultures of peoples inevitably meet, “exchange experiences”, merge. Architecture and art were carried around the world by merchants and pilgrims, learned monks and fugitive soldiers... The conquerors brought with them standards of beauty and forced
From the book Reconstruction true history author From the book The Beginning of Horde Rus'. After Christ. The Trojan War. Founding of Rome. author Nosovsky Gleb Vladimirovich4.4. Bronze In Fig. 6.29 and fig. 6.30 shows magnificent bronze military helmets from the so-called “gladiator barracks” supposedly of the 1st century AD. e., discovered during excavations in Pompeii. Work of a high technological level. Pay attention to the perfectly correct holes
From the book of Rus of Great Scythia author Petukhov Yuri Dmitrievich3.6. Copper, Bronze and Iron The metal industry has driven technological progress over the last few thousand years. It is not for nothing that historical eras were named: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age... The first copper products appeared in the Neolithic cultures of the 7th–6th millennium BC
From the book The Founding of Rome. The beginning of Horde Rus'. After Christ. Trojan War author Nosovsky Gleb Vladimirovich4.4. Bronze In Fig. 6.28 and fig. 6.29 shows magnificent bronze military helmets from the so-called “gladiator barracks” supposedly of the 1st century AD. e., discovered during excavations in Pompeii. Work of a high technological level. Pay attention to the perfectly correct holes
From the book Reconstruction of True History author Nosovsky Gleb Vladimirovich9. Tin, copper, bronze It is well known that the metallurgy of tin is more complex than that of copper. Therefore, bronze, as an alloy of copper and tin, had to appear LATER than the discovery of tin. But in Scaligerian history the picture is exactly the opposite. First, supposedly, they discovered bronze. "It turned out"
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From the book 100 Great Treasures author Ionina NadezhdaArtistic Bronze of China In the exhibition of the Beijing Imperial Museum, a large place is occupied by classical examples of ancient Chinese bronze of the 16th-3rd centuries BC; there are over five hundred copies of them in the museum’s collections. Bronze processing technology in China dates back to
From the book Dacians [Ancient people of the Carpathians and Danube] by Berciu DumitruFINAL PHASE (BRONZE IV) The transition from the magnificent cultures of the Thracian Bronze Age to the Iron Age took place gradually and systematically, without any breaks or fractures. Recent archaeological research in Romania has completely refuted the theory that
From the book Georgians [Keepers of Shrines] by Lang DavidChapter 2 COPPER AND BRONZE An important breakthrough in the study of the prehistory of Georgia and the entire Transcaucasus occurred in the last few decades, when a large number of finds were discovered related to the “Eneolithic culture of Transcaucasia” (Munchaev, Piotrovsky), which
From the book Mysteries of Antiquity. Blank spots in the history of civilization author Burgansky Gariy EremeevichCOPPER, BRONZE, PLATINUM AND... ALUMINUM The era of metal has been going on for almost nine millennia. The Greek poet Hesiod (about 770 BC) told a well-known legend about the four centuries of mankind: gold, silver, copper and iron. Division of human history into
From the book God of War author Nosovsky Gleb Vladimirovich1. Copper and bronze Usually the era, not illuminated by written monuments that have come down to us, is divided by historians into three main periods: the Stone, Copper and Iron Ages. At the same time, the Copper Age is often called the Bronze Age, since historians believe that bronze (an alloy
From the book God of War author Nosovsky Gleb Vladimirovich4. When was bronze invented? Today it is believed that bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) has been known since ancient times. And historians often call the Copper Age the “Bronze Age.” If you believe Scaligerian dating, then in “antiquity” a huge
From the book Encyclopedia of Slavic culture, writing and mythology author Kononenko Alexey AnatolievichBronze This alloy of copper with tin and other metals, invented by man, gave the name to an entire era in the life of mankind - the Bronze Age (IV-I millennium BC). The word “bronze”, according to some versions, is of Arabic or Persian origin. Pliny the Elder deduces this
And it so happened that in the process of exchanging opinions on materials published in VO, it became clear that a fairly significant part of the users of this site were interested in ... the Bronze Age and, in particular, the weapons and armor of the legendary Trojan War. Well, the topic is really very interesting. Moreover, it is familiar to almost everyone, even at the level of a school textbook for the fifth grade. “Copper-sharp spears”, “helmet-shining Hector”, “famous shield of Achilles” - all this is from there. And besides, this historical event itself is unique. After all, people learned about him from the poem, work of art. But it turned out that after learning about it and showing appropriate interest, they acquired knowledge about a culture previously unknown to them.
Black-figure ceramic vessel from Corinth depicting characters from the Trojan War. (About 590 - 570 BC). (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Well, you will need to start from the very beginning. Namely, that the myth of Troy, besieged by the Greeks, was not confirmed by convincing facts until the end of the 19th century. But then, fortunately for all mankind, the romantic childhood dream of Heinrich Schliemann received powerful financial support (Schliemann became rich!) and he immediately went to Asia Minor in search of the legendary Troy. After 355 AD this name was not mentioned anywhere, Schliemann decided that the description Herodotus had was identical to the Hissarlik hill and began to dig there. And he dug there from 1871 for more than 20 years, until his death. At the same time, he was no archaeologist! He removed finds from the excavation site without describing them, threw away everything that did not seem valuable to him and dug, dug, dug... Until he found “his” Troy!
Many scientists of that time doubted that this was really Troy, but British Prime Minister William Gladstone began to patronize him, he got professional archaeologist Wilhelm Dornfeld on his team, and gradually the secret of the ancient city began to be revealed! Their most amazing discovery was that they discovered as many as nine cultural layers, that is, each time a new Troy was built on the ruins of the previous one. The oldest, of course, was Troy I, and the “youngest” was Troy IX of Roman times. Today, even more such layers (and sublayers) have been found - 46, so it turned out to be not at all easy to study Troy!
Schliemann believed that the Troy he needed was Troy II, but in fact the real Troy is number VII. It has been proven that the city died in a fire, and the remains of people found in this layer eloquently indicate that they died a violent death. The year when this happened is generally considered to be 1250 BC.
Ruins of ancient Troy.
It is interesting that during the excavations of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann discovered a treasure of gold jewelry, silver cups, bronze weapons, and he took all this for the “treasure of King Priam.” Later it turned out that the “Priam’s treasure” belongs to an earlier era, but that’s not the point, it’s that Schliemann simply appropriated it. His wife Sofia, a like-minded person and assistant, who secretly removed all these things from the excavations, helped him to do this unnoticed. But officially this treasure should have belonged to Turkey, but it did not get it except for a few small things. They placed him in the Berlin Museum, but during the Second World War he disappeared, and until 1991 no one knew where he was or what happened to him. But in 1991 it became known that since 1945 the treasure, taken as a trophy, has been in Moscow at the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin can still be seen today in room No. 3.
Large diadem from “Hoard A” 2400 – 2200. BC. (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin)
However, even without finds from this treasure, we know a lot about that time today. The fact is that professional archaeologists took Schliemann’s discovery as a challenge, but took into account his experience and began to dig in all the places mentioned in Homer’s Iliad - in Mycenae, Pylos, and Crete. They found the “golden mask of Agamemnon,” a lot of other items from that era, and just a very large number of swords and daggers.
Moreover, the good thing is that they were bronze, not iron, and therefore well preserved! So, this is what the most learned historians think about swords and daggers from the era of the Trojan War. different countries the world, including the “master of swords” Evart Oakeshott, in, so to speak, a concentrated form...
In their opinion, the early swords of the Aegean Bronze Age are among the most striking artifacts of the era in terms of craftsmanship and luxury. Moreover, these could be ritual items, and weapons actually used in the war. Early swords developed from daggers. The shape is derived from stone daggers. The stone, however, is very brittle and therefore cannot be made into a long sword. With the introduction of copper and bronze, daggers eventually evolved into swords.
CI type rapier sword. Koudonia, Crete. Length 83 cm.
The hilt for this sword.
The earliest swords from the Aegean period were found in Anatolia, Turkey, and date back to approximately 3300 BC. e. The evolution of bladed weapons from bronze is as follows: from the dagger or knife in the Early Bronze Age, to swords (“rapiers”) optimized for thrusting (Middle Bronze Age), and then to the typical swords with leaf-shaped blades of the Late Bronze Age.
One of the earliest swords of the Aegean world is the sword from Naxos (circa 2800-2300 BC). The length of this sword is 35.6 cm, that is, it looks more like a dagger. A copper sword was discovered on the Cyclades Islands in Amorgos. The length of this sword is already 59 cm. Several Minoan bronze short swords were discovered in Heraklion and Siwa. Their general design clearly shows that they are also descended from early leaf-shaped daggers.
But one of the most interesting inventions of the Aegean Bronze Age was the great sword. These weapons, which appeared in the middle of the second millennium BC on the island of Crete and on the territory of mainland Greece, differ from all earlier examples.
The famous palace in Knossos. Modern look. Photo by A. Ponomarev.
The territory occupied by the palace was huge and there was so much they could not dig up there. Photo by A. Ponomarev.
Analysis of some specimens shows that the material is an alloy of copper and tin, or arsenic. When the percentage of copper or tin is high, the blades can be distinguished even by their appearance, as they have a reddish or silver color respectively. Was this done intentionally to imitate expensive metals such as gold and silver so that these swords or daggers would have a beautiful appearance, or is it just the result of an incorrect calculation required quantity additives to the alloy are unknown. To typologize bronze swords found in Greece, the Sandars classification is used, according to which swords are located in eight main groups, under the letters A to H, plus numerous subtypes, which are not given in this case due to their abundance.
Sandars classification. It clearly shows that the most ancient swords 500 years before the fall of Troy (which is believed to have taken place in 1250 BC) were exclusively piercing! Two hundred years before it, swords with V-shaped crosshairs and a high edge on the blade appeared. The handle was now also cast together with the blade. 1250 is characterized by swords with an H-shaped handle, which in principle can be used to both chop and stab. Its base was cast together with the blade, after which wooden or bone “cheeks” were attached to it with rivets.
The connection between Minoan triangular small swords or daggers and long swords can be traced, for example, in an example found in Malia on Crete (circa 1700 BC). It has distinctive blade rivet holes at the tail and a distinct rib. That is, this sword, like early daggers, did not have a hilt. The handle was wooden and fastened with rivets with massive caps. It is clear that it was impossible to chop with such a sword, but to stab - as much as you wanted! The finish of its handle, which was covered with a gold engraved sheet, was surprisingly luxurious, and a wonderful piece of rock crystal was used as a pommel.
Dagger circa 1500 BC. Length 24.3 cm. Decorated with a notch with gold wire.
Long rapier swords have been found in the palace of Crete in Mallia, in Mycenaean tombs, in the Cyclades, in the Ionian Islands and in Central Europe. Moreover, both in Bulgaria and Denmark, Sweden and England. These swords sometimes reach a meter in length. All have a riveted handle and a high diamond-shaped rib, except when it has complex decoration.
The hilts of these swords were made of wood or ivory and were sometimes decorated with gold plates. The swords date back to 1600 – 1500. BC, and the most recent examples to the period around 1400 BC. The length ranges from 74 to 111 cm. They also find sheaths, or rather their remains. Based on these finds, we can conclude that they were made of wood and often wore gold jewelry. Moreover, the preservation of metal and even wooden (!) parts, which made it possible to carry out radiocarbon analysis of these products, makes it possible to completely reconstruct swords and daggers of this period, which was done, in particular, on the instructions of the archaeological museum in Mycenae.
Swords were worn on richly decorated baldrics, the decor of which has also survived to our time. Well, confirmation that piercing blows were inflicted with such swords are the images of warriors who fight with them on rings and seals. At the same time, modern dating shows that a number of such swords were made during the 200 years of Homer's Trojan War!
Reconstruction of an F2c sword by Peter Connolly.
In this regard, many historians note that such long piercing swords were in service with the “peoples of the sea” and, in particular, the famous Shardans, known in Egypt from images on the walls of the temple in Medinet Habu in 1180 BC.
It is worth once again drawing attention to the fact that the existing opinion that these swords are suitable for anything other than their immediate purpose is incorrect. Replicas of these swords were tested, and they demonstrated their high effectiveness as a piercing weapon, designed to make deadly attacks in the fight of real fencers!
That is, today the finds of bronze swords and daggers in the Aegean Sea region are so voluminous that they have made it possible to develop their typology and also draw a number of interesting conclusions. It is clear that all of them simply cannot be attributed directly to the Trojan War. This is nonsense! But we can talk about the “Homeric time”, the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization, the “Aegean region”, etc.
Reconstruction of two Naue II swords with wooden hilts with rivets. This type of sword was characteristic of Central and Northern Europe around 1000 BC.
Moreover, the spread of such weapons in European countries tells us that perhaps trade relations at that time were much more developed than is commonly believed, so it is quite possible to speak of “European internationalization” and “integration” in the Bronze Age. Specifically, this can be expressed in the fact that there was a certain people of seafarers - the same “peoples of the sea”, who sailed around the whole of Europe and spread Mycenaean and Cretan weapons, and, in particular, swords throughout Europe.
Image of warriors of the “peoples of the sea” (Shardans) on a relief from Medinet Habu.
Somewhere they found use, but where the war tactics were different, these weapons were purchased as “overseas curiosities” and sacrificed to the gods. In addition, we can draw a conclusion about tactics: there was a people whose warriors were a caste, and a rather closed one at that. The warriors of this people learned to use their long piercing swords from childhood. But it was impossible to just pick up this sword and cut with it from the shoulder. But then this caste died out.
Type F swords depicted in a fresco from Pylos (circa 1300 BC)
“Soldiers” were needed for the “mass army,” whom there was neither time nor energy to train, and piercing swords very quickly replaced cutting ones. After all, the chopping blow is intuitive and much easier to master than the thrust. Especially with a sword of such a complex design.
Achilles and Agamemnon: Roman mosaic from Naples and... a Roman sword on Achilles' hip! Three bronze swords, approximately 1250-1050 BC. The so-called Atlantic type of Naue II leaf-shaped swords. All three were found in France.
The first sword belongs to the group of swords with a leaf-shaped blade and a three-sided tang with “shoulders”. The “hilt” was riveted to such a sword separately. This sword does not have it. The blade of the sword is leaf-shaped, double-edged, bronze, with a clearly defined tip and a medial stiffening rib. The total length of the weapon is 474 mm, weight 347 grams, blade length 368 mm, maximum blade width 43 mm, blade thickness (max.) 6.83 mm.
The second sword belongs to the same group of swords from the Bronze Age: with a leaf-shaped blade and a three-sided shank with holes for rivets. The blade of the sword is leaf-shaped, double-edged, bronze with a clearly defined tip and a central longitudinal rib. The blade is broken off at the narrowest point - at the shoulders. The total length of the weapon is 503 mm, weight 411 grams, maximum blade width 42 mm, shoulder width 65 mm, blade thickness (max.) 6.96 mm.
The third bronze sword was produced at the same time as the first two and is of the same type. The blade of the sword is leaf-shaped, double-edged, bronze with a clearly defined tip and an implicit central longitudinal rib. The total length of the weapon is 479 mm, weight 352 grams, blade length 388 mm, maximum blade width 39 mm, minimum blade width 30 mm, blade thickness (max.) 5.85 mm.
During the Bronze Age, several types of “classical” weapons appeared, which lasted throughout the subsequent millennia until very recently. These are a sword and a spear as offensive weapons and a shield, helmet and shell as elements of armor. For fast movement, two-wheeled, horse-drawn war chariots were invented, which, together with the crew - a driver and an archer - constituted a fast and deadly fighting machine.
This combination of these military innovations led to social transformations everywhere, as they changed not only the conduct of combat and war itself, but also the underlying social and economic conditions. There was a need for new abilities and new craftsmen, such as those who could make the horse harness with which the driver could maneuver the war chariot, or those who could build the chariot itself. In addition, dexterity in handling new types of hand weapons - a sword and a spear - was now necessary, which required long and lengthy training, which can be judged, for example, by the highly developed shoulders of skeletons from the early Mycenaean burials of Aegina. Remains in Bronze Age burials often have wounds inflicted by a sword or spear, and the weapon itself often shows signs of combat use - damage and repeated sharpening. An organized and deadly method of warfare entered the historical arena.
Il. 1. Bronze Age warrior, reconstructed based on funerary goods and textiles found in Danish oak coffins
The new military aristocracy differed from their fellow tribesmen in their clothing and well-groomed appearance. There was a need for razors and tweezers, which helped maintain this look; in addition, the new elite sported luxurious woolen raincoats (ill. 1). It would not be a mistake to assume that warfare as a profession has been actively developing since the Middle Bronze Age. The status of a warrior was especially attractive to young men, which forced them to serve as mercenaries in very remote areas. In the cemetery in Neckarsulm in southern Germany, more than a third of male burials, even without weapons in the grave goods, are the remains of non-local, alien men. Globalization was also reflected in the widespread proliferation of new types of swords. Thus, a sword with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching the handle for the period from 1500 to 1100 BC. e. spread from Scandinavia to the Aegean Islands, which indicates an intensive exchange of knowledge in the field of military and combat practice, as well as long journeys of warriors and mercenaries (ill. 2).
War chariots
In all likelihood, war chariots appeared in the southern Russian steppes, then, in the period between 2000 and 1700 BC. e. they spread from the region of the Eastern Urals and the Sintashta culture to the Black Sea region, the islands of the Aegean Sea and further to Central and Northern Europe, where very realistic and detailed images of war carts are found in rock paintings. The kingdoms and palace cultures of the Middle East, the Hittites in Anatolia and the Mycenaeans in Greece, especially readily adopted the new product. The aristocratic style of fighting became widespread: first spears were used, and then rapiers and swords up to a meter long. They were used primarily as piercing rather than slashing weapons, this is illustrated by Mycenaean seals and inlays on blades, which depict a piercing attack on the enemy’s shield. It is clear that the sword was the weapon of the elite, the leader, who, however, was always accompanied by a large group of foot soldiers with spears and probably bows and arrows to hit distant targets. In Germany and Denmark - regions in which settlements and necropolises of the Bronze Age are well studied - it is possible to calculate how many warriors from individual households supported the few leaders with swords: the ratio is 6-12 warriors per leader. This coincides with the number of oarsmen on Scandinavian cave paintings with ships and can be considered a stable number of warriors in a group under a local leader (Fig. 3).
Fortified Settlements
At the same time, in the Danube-Carpathian region there was a widespread strengthening of large settlements located on the ground with the help of ramparts and deep ditches. This shows how organized the preparations were for local conflicts; ensured constant protection of people and property large groups warriors Many of these fortified settlements are located at crossroads near large rivers or mountain passes, suggesting that they were needed to ensure the security of the metal trade. In some places the fortifications were made of large solid stones, this is especially impressive at Moncodonier in Metri and where even the gates were separately protected by a complex stone structure, which is sometimes found in Central European fortifications. On the northern Italian Pa and a certain plain there are also defensive structures of complex design, where water ditches are built around the settlements (Fig. 4).
Fortifications existed throughout the Bronze Age, and there is an explanation for this. Near some, for example, near Velem in Bohemia, those killed in battle were found, dumped in large numbers into pits. Further excavations of Bronze Age fortifications will probably yield the same results.
Il. 4. a - Terramare settlement with palisade, Poviglio, Italy (after: Bernabó Brea 1997); b - Fortress Gate, Moncodonia, Istria (by: Mihovilic i. a. o. J.) Swords with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching the hilt
Il. 5. Swords with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching a hilt of the same type, common in the territory between Denmark and the Aegean region The most ancient swords were practically unsuitable for combat, since the blade and hilt were connected to each other only with rivets. Soon an effective and powerful weapon appeared, in which the handle and blade were cast as one piece. The handle itself, made of wood, bone or horn, which ended with a pommel, was attached to a tongue-shaped platform. Such a sword could reflect strong blows and not break when hit by a shield. New sword with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching the hilt became the standard weapon of the Bronze Age warrior, it spread over a vast territory from Scandinavia to the islands of the Aegean Sea, indicating intense connections between groups of mercenaries or even between entire Bronze Age societies. It continued to be used in different variations of shape and length until the very end of the Bronze Age.
In Central Europe, a blade length of 60 cm was preferred. Some blades found were slightly shorter, indicating repeated sharpening of the tip, which could often bend or break. This length of the sword indicates, rather, in favor of individual combat rather than phalanx attacks. In the Aegean region, the length of the sword, after some fluctuations, became 40 cm, like the later Roman gladius, which speaks in favor of fighting in a phalanx with limited opportunity movement (ill. 5).
Darts and spears
The most common weapons of the Bronze Age were undoubtedly javelins and spears, which only at the end of this period began to be quite distinctly different from each other. The latter, like modern bayonets, were used in close combat and were par excellence infantry weapons. Each warrior usually carried two javelins or spears, as evidenced by images on Mycenaean vases, as well as grave goods found throughout Europe.
Defensive weapons: shield, helmet and armor
A warrior's best protection from injury has always been his own skillful handling of weapons. Therefore, the Celts went into battle naked to demonstrate their military superiority and fearlessness. However, even the best warrior needed protection from all sorts of surprises, and along with the progress of weapons, defensive equipment also improved.
Outside Greece, almost no defensive equipment was found in finds dating from the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, since they were made mainly of wood or leather (shields) and bone (wild boar tusks for helmets). The best sources available to us on this topic are Mycenaean depictions of warfare. Helmets with boar tusks from the Middle Bronze Age were found in the Carpathian region. Nevertheless, in Central Europe, some elements of men's equipment were probably developed specifically for protection in battle: wrist spirals and heavy spiral rings protecting the hand and elbow were often found along with swords. There is no doubt that they were used as they show mechanical damage. Conventional wrist spirals were shaped like the forearm and tapered towards the wrist.
Only towards the end of the Bronze Age, special protective equipment made of unchained bronze appeared throughout Europe - helmets, shields, armor and leggings. Since unforged bronze did not provide the necessary protection, this equipment was considered the prestigious vestment of the military aristocracy, used exclusively for ceremonies and to demonstrate their social status. This conclusion coincides with the observation of researchers that leaders with cast-hilted swords did not take part in heavy battles. In addition, this confirms the presence of a hierarchy in the conduct of military operations in the Late Bronze Age - the battle was primarily taken on by warriors, and the elite directed their actions.
Nevertheless, some usefulness of defensive equipment cannot be ruled out. The armor and leg armor were probably lined on the inside with leather or other organic materials such as felt or linen, as evidenced by fastening rivets. In Greece, helmets, leg plates and wrist guards also had holes for attaching linings. It can be assumed that the situation was the same in the rest of Europe. In addition, one of the most famous helmets dating back to the Late Bronze Age, the helmet from Hajdu-Bösörmei is covered with dents from blows of a sword and ax or arrows and darts. Judging by the rivet holes on the inside, the helmet had a lining of leather or fabric, thanks to which it sat firmly and comfortably on the head.
Bronze swords: functionality and use
One of the constantly repeated arguments against the fact that both cast and tongue-shaped swords were actually used in warfare is the claim that the hilt itself is too short to be held in the hand. Having held hundreds of swords in my hand, I find this argument to be unfounded. Iron Age swords are quite heavy, at least compared to historical or modern rapiers, with most of the weight being in the blade. To control the movements of the sword, you need to clasp the handle very tightly with your palm. This is precisely what the short handle with protruding shoulders, which in this case are the functional part of the handle, is designed for. The hand covered the handle along with the hanger, making all movements more precise and controlled. Fingers in such a coverage also became more mobile, which made it possible to use a variety of military equipment. It was ideal solution for a combination of slashing and stabbing strikes carried out with one hand. During the Late Bronze Age, the cutting technique became dominant and made handling the sword even more difficult, leading to one interesting invention (Fig. 6). Most swords with a cast hilt have a small hole in the pommel, the purpose of which has not yet been explained. However, some swords have abrasions in the area of this hole, clearly caused by a strap, most likely leather. On ill. b shows the use of this cord, which makes one recall a modern police baton, since such a device for the handle of a sword corresponded to the same practical functions: it prevented the ability to release the sword from the hand, allowed the hand to relax, and the warrior to use a larger swing and greater force when striking.
Il. 6. A sword with a fused hilt, equipped with a leather strap that did not allow the weapon to be released from the hand Proper balancing plays an essential role in sword fighting. The distribution of weight between the handle and the blade determines its use for stabbing or slashing. The long and thin blades of the Middle Bronze Age speak more about their use as a piercing weapon, and in the Late Bronze Age the blade became wide and heavy, which was necessary for a chopping weapon. The difference lies in the location of the center of gravity: for thrusting swords it is located next to the hilt, for cutting swords it is much lower, in the area of the blade.
This means that the piercing sword had to make it possible to make quick defensive and offensive movements, and the slashing sword was too heavy for this, it was intended for energetic movements with a large swing. It should, however, be emphasized that the cutting and thrusting swords of the Bronze Age cannot be compared with modern types swords, very highly specialized and suitable only for their originally intended use. The Bronze Age sword could be used in a variety of ways, despite the fact that one of the functions of a piercing or cutting weapon could be realized by one sword better than by another. Only the earliest examples of rapiers are purely piercing weapons, even compared to the most ancient swords with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching the hilt.
All of the above shows that swords were indeed used in battles in the Bronze Age. This is confirmed by traces of combat on the blades, which can be found on most swords. Such notches and subsequent re-sharpening are characteristic of swords throughout the Bronze Age. The area under the handle is a protection zone, so this is where particularly severe damage and sharpening marks are found. Most often, the defects are more pronounced on one side than on the other, since the warrior usually always held the weapon in his hand in the same way. The consequence of repeated sharpening was that the blades under the hilt often became narrower, they were sharpened more strongly.
Older swords, which had been used longer in combat and were more frequently damaged and repaired, sometimes had the lower crosshairs broken due to repeated sharpening and the fury of enemy blows. Therefore, the lower rivet holes were damaged and unusable. In the Late Bronze Age, this led to technical improvements in swords, in particular to the appearance of a ricasso under the hilt, which helped to hold the enemy blade so that it did not slip upward, damage the crosshairs and injure the warrior’s fingers. Sometimes the entire handle was bent due to frequent strikes and defensive techniques, indicating that heavy fighting was not uncommon. Swords with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching the handle could even break in the area of the handle. The findings show that this happened very often, even if you do not count some broken swords found, in which the breakage could have happened in recent times.
In the middle part of the blade there is damage that occurs during an attack when the striking sword is stopped by the enemy’s sword. Here, too, there may be concavities in the cutting edge that appear due to repeated sharpening. These concavities are especially noticeable in comparison with swords that have damage that has not been corrected by re-sharpening (ill. 7). Some swords have oblique notches on the middle edge, indicating that Bronze Age warriors also used defensive techniques that used the flat surface of the blade. The tip of the blade could also be bent or even broken off when the sword hit the shield during a stabbing blow. Sharpening with the formation of a new point is quite common in swords dating back to the Middle Bronze Age, although it is also characteristic of the Late Bronze Age, which indicates the varied use of swords - both for chopping and piercing.
Il. 7. Examples of swords with a re-sharpened and modified blade To summarize, we can say that we have clear evidence of the great importance of sword fighting in Bronze Age Europe. Throughout this period, there were well-trained experts in the art of sword fighting. It can be stated that different types of swords also had different functions: a sword with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching the handle was the standard weapon of professional warriors, and a sword with a cast handle was more of a leader’s weapon, although it was also used in battle. In swords of this type, the blade is usually damaged to a much lesser extent than in swords with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching the handle. Regarding the Early and Middle Bronze Age, further evidence of this use of fused hilt swords is the fact that the hilt was secured only with rivets, which could hardly withstand a strong blow. In the Late Bronze Age, the end of the blade was already inserted into the hilt to make the weapon more stable and prevent the sword from breaking between the blade and the hilt. Therefore, the number of rivets was reduced to two, and very small ones. It can be assumed that at this time swords with cast hilts were more often used in real combat. The damage found on both the tongue-shaped swords and the cast-handle swords does not resemble those that could occur when using the swords in practice combat. For them, real swords were too valuable, so special wooden swords were used for training already in the Bronze Age, which, in turn, also indicates great importance wars in the lives of Bronze Age people.
Nomadic warriors and their significance for the metal trade
During the Bronze Age, an international warrior culture emerged for the first time, testifying to the intense relationships and active mutual influence of various groups of warriors throughout Europe. This can be illustrated using maps of the distribution of different types of swords, for example, swords with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching the hilt or swords with a cast octagonal hilt from the 15th and 14th centuries before. n. e., uniting Denmark with Southern Germany and Central Europe (ill. 8). In addition, the mapping clearly demonstrates that some women were used to establish political alliances between local groups and establish peaceful relations, which were necessary for the metal trade and allowed traders and warriors to move safely between neighboring groups. Il. Figure 8 shows, among other things, that male warriors left home much more often and moved longer distances from it.
Il. 8. The spread of octagonal swords as an indication of the movements of mercenaries and traders in the 15th and 14th centuries. BC e. The circles represent individual cultural groups, and the arrows show places where the woman was buried outside her home region Such movements were recently confirmed by the discovery of a men's cemetery in Neckarsulm, where more than fifty people were buried. By studying strontium isotopes in tooth enamel, it was possible to prove that a third of the men buried there were from other places. Most likely, these were mercenaries in the service of a foreign ruler. Traders, blacksmiths, warriors, mercenaries, migrants and diplomats traveled long distances in those days. Good examples there may be remains of ships discovered off the capes and. These ships could transport not only goods to distant possessions, but also warriors or mercenaries, who at the same time also protected the cargo.
It has been historically proven that Germanic and Celtic mercenaries served the Romans, returning after service to their homeland with Roman weapons and Roman goods, the possession of which ensured prestige in society. Therefore, the presence in the eastern part of Central Europe of the 14th and 13th centuries BC. e. Greco-Mycenaean weapons can well be interpreted as evidence of the return of mercenaries after service in Mycenaean territories. The same can be confirmed by Central European, primarily Italic, swords with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching the handle, found in the area of Mycenaean palaces, as well as ceramics made in the traditions of the native places of the newcomers, for example, vessels reminiscent of Italic ones and discovered in the East Mediterranean.
Ethnographic examples support the thesis of warriors and traders moving over long distances. Warriors often formed their own group identity (warrior communities), which united them within a specific territory through clear rules of acceptable behavior. The rules could concern both the recruitment of new warriors and one’s own travels to distant lands in order to return with glory and prestigious goods. This behavior is characteristic of the Maasai and Japanese samurai, and is present as a recurring plot element in the stories of warriors and wars.
Organization of military units
In some regions of Europe, the proportion of weapons in burials and treasures is so high that it is possible to calculate how many weapons and warriors were available at a certain point in time. In Denmark from the period between 1450 and 1150 BC. e. About 2,000 swords have survived, almost all of which were found in burials. At this time, approximately 50,000 burial grounds were built, from 10 to 15% of which it was possible to explore and find funeral gifts there. Extrapolating from these data, we can conclude that in reality a total of almost 20,000 swords ended up in the necropolises. Based on the lifespan of the sword (30 years), then the warrior’s family needed from three to four swords per century, which for the three hundred years in question is 12-15 swords. This, in turn, gives a figure for the simultaneous use of swords - 1300, which approximately corresponds to the number of settlements in Denmark at that time. The sword was probably the weapon of the local leader, and his troops were armed with javelins, although some may also have carried a sword.
The ratio of the number of leaders with swords and the number of peasants and warriors in the detachment can also be calculated based on the number of settlements. Individual farms varied in size, with families ranging from 10 to 15 people. Based on one farm per square kilometer and the population of half of Denmark at that time, total area which is 44,000 square kilometers, then at the same time there should have been from 25,000 to 30,000 farms of various sizes. The leader assembled a detachment of supposedly 20-25 farms. Thus, the rulers of even small groups of the population could quickly assemble an army of several hundred warriors. If only the largest households delegated warriors, then for each leader with a sword there were probably only 5-10 warriors, which corresponds more closely to data calculated for some parts of Germany and the number depicted on ships in cave paintings. Thus, it can be considered proven that European societies of the Bronze Age were very well armed. Throughout the era, the number of simultaneously existing weapons amounted to tens and hundreds of thousands, even if we take Denmark, a small but rich country, as the basis for calculations. Therefore, it is logical to assume that traces of military victims should also be preserved, and this assumption turns out to be fair.
Victims of war
Recently, our knowledge of battle wounds on skeletons has deepened significantly, as well as our understanding of the number of those killed during different types conflicts.
Il. 9. Combat wound: bronze arrowhead in a vertebra. Klings, South Thuringia (after: Osgord i. a. 2000) At the Olmo di Nogara cemetery in Northern Italy, dating back to the Middle Bronze Age, 116 male skeletons were examined, half of which were buried with swords with a tongue-shaped platform for attaching the handle, including early types with a short tongue. Approximately 16% of these people had injuries to the bones and skull caused by combat, most often blows from swords or arrows. If we consider that there are many fatal wounds inflicted by a spear or arrow that do not leave marks on the bones, then 16% will turn out to be a very high proportion, indicating constant local conflicts. In this region, warriors who had a sword actively participated in battles, which corresponds to the picture of burials with weapons in the arch of Mycenaean burials B, for those buried there have numerous wounds and a very short life expectancy.
However, there were also ruthless massacres. The fortification at Vilema in Bohemia has already been mentioned. Another example is Sund in Western Norway. A mass grave from the late Middle Bronze Age was discovered here, containing more than 30 people - men, women and children - killed around 1200 BC. e. The wounds indicate fierce combat between men who apparently fought with swords and many of whom had healed wounds from previous battles. Some showed signs of malnutrition, suggesting that control of food sources may have been a factor in the war.
Il. 10. Wooden club and skull with marks from a blow from a club, discovered on a Bronze Age battlefield in a river valley (photo: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Office for Culture and Monument Protection, Department of Archeology, Schwerin) Finally, we must mention the great battle that also took place around 1200 BC. e. in the valley of the small river Tollensee in present-day Mecklenburg, Vorpommern. Here, on a section of the river 1-2 kilometers long, the remains of the skeletons of more than a hundred people were found, and it is likely that others will be discovered in the future (Fig. 9). Obviously, here, after a lost battle, all the dead of the entire army were thrown into the river. The remains of wooden clubs and axes (Fig. 10), as well as arrowheads, were found from weapons. It is likely that those who died were migrants looking for new lands, because at this time dramatic changes were taking place throughout Europe.
Thus, there is evidence of the existence of organized warfare, from small conflicts to confrontations of entire armies. In this sense, the Bronze Age was not much different from the subsequent Iron Age.
Conclusion
Even twenty years ago, research into Bronze Age weapons was aimed exclusively at elucidating their typological development, and their practical use was highly questioned. A new generation of researchers looked at the object of their study in a new way. Today, traces of its use on weapons have already been studied, reconstruction experiments have been carried out, showing how well organized and dangerous the fighting was in the Bronze Age, which is confirmed by anatomical studies of wounds. It would not be far from the truth to say that modern methods warfare has its origins in the Bronze Age, since the forms of weapons and systems of defense known to us from later times were developed then.
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8I was about to finish the topic of the Trojan War, but active VO users pointed out a number of circumstances that simply oblige me to continue this topic. Firstly, with a fairly complete presentation of factual material based on archaeological finds, the “people” wanted to know about the tactics of use and especially the effectiveness of certain types of weapons of the Mycenaean era. It is clear that a science such as historiography cannot directly answer this question, but answers only through the works of some authoritative authors. Secondly, controversy arose regarding the actual technology of bronze. It seemed to someone that the bronze rapier was as heavy as a five-liter container of water, someone argued that bronze could not be forged, in a word, and here the opinion of experts in this field was needed. Still others were interested in shields, their design, ability to resist blows from bronze weapons, and weight.
That is, it was necessary to turn to the opinion of reenactors, moreover, authoritative people, “with experience”, who could confirm something from experience and refute something. My friends who found bronze figures were not suitable in this case: they are artists, not technologists, and do not know the specifics of working with metal, and besides, they hardly work with weapons. And I needed people who had access to famous museums and their collections, who worked on their artifacts, and made remakes to order. The quality of their work (and reviews of it) had to be appropriate - that is, the opinion of “armchair historians” regarding their products had to be high.
After much searching, I managed to find three specialists in this field. Two in England and one in the USA and obtain permission from them to use their text and photographic materials. But now regulars of VO and simply its visitors have a unique opportunity to see their work, get acquainted with the technologies and their own comments on this interesting topic.
I'll start by giving the floor to Neil Burridge, a Briton who has been working with bronze weapons for 12 years. He considers it his worst insult when “experts” come to his workshop and say that they would make exactly the same sword on a CNC machine in half the time and, accordingly, for half the cost.
“But it would be a completely different sword!”
– Neil answers them, but he doesn’t always convince. Well, they are stubborn ignoramuses and ignoramuses in England too, and nothing can be done about it. Well, seriously, he shares the opinion of the English historian of the 19th century. Richard Burton, what
“The history of the sword is the history of mankind.”
And it was precisely bronze swords and daggers that created this story, becoming the basis, yes, exactly the basis of our modern civilization, based on the use of metals and machines!
Analysis of the finds shows that the most ancient “rapiers” of the 17th and 16th centuries. BC. were also the most difficult if we consider the profile of the blade. They have a lot of ribs and grooves. Later blades are much simpler. And this weapon is piercing, since the blades had a wooden handle connected to the blade with rivets. Later, the handle began to be cast together with the blade, but very often, according to tradition, the convex heads of the rivets on the guard were preserved, and the guard itself was the holder of the blade!
Swords were cast in stone or ceramic molds. Stone ones were more difficult, and in addition, the sides of the blade were slightly different from each other. Ceramic ones could be detachable, or they could be solid, that is, they work using the “lost shape” technology. The base for the mold could be made of wax - two completely identical halves cast in plaster!
The copper (and the Homeric Greeks did not distinguish between bronze, for them it was also copper!) alloy used in later swords (there was nothing in the early ones!), consisted of approximately 8-9% tin and 1-3% lead. It was added to improve the fluidity of bronze for complex castings. 12% tin in bronze is the limit - the metal will be very brittle!
As for the general direction of the evolution of the sword, it definitely moved in the direction from a piercing rapier sword to a chopping leaf-shaped sword with a hilt that is a continuation of the blade! It is important to note that metallographic analysis shows: the cutting edge of the blade of bronze swords was always forged to increase its strength! The sword itself was cast, but the cutting edges were always forged! Although it was clearly not easy to do this without damaging the numerous ribs on the blade! (Those who wrote about this in the comments - rejoice! This is exactly what happened!) Therefore, the sword was both flexible and rigid at the same time! Tests have shown that such a leaf-shaped sword with one blow is capable of cutting a five-liter plastic container of water in half with an oblique blow!
What does a sword look like when it comes out of the mold? Badly! This is how it is shown in our photo and it takes a lot of time and effort to turn it into a product pleasing to the eye!
Having removed the flash, we proceed to grinding, which is now performed using an abrasive, but in those distant times it was performed with quartz sand. But before polishing the blade, remember that at least 3 mm of its cutting edge must be well forged! It should be noted that only some swords of that time were absolutely symmetrical. Apparently, symmetry did not play a big role in the eyes of the gunsmiths of that time!
Author's note: It's amazing how our lives zigzag! In 1972, during my first year at the pedagogical institute, I became interested in Mycenaean Greece and Egypt. I bought two gorgeous albums with photographs of artifacts and decided... to make myself a bronze dagger modeled on an Egyptian one. I cut it out of a bronze sheet 3 mm thick, and then, like a convict, I filed the blade until I got a leaf-shaped profile. The handle was made from... “Egyptian mastic”, mixing cement with red nitro varnish. I processed everything, polished it and immediately noticed that you should not touch the blade with your hands! And then I saw that the Egyptians’ “mastic” was blue (they considered red to be barbaric!) and I immediately stopped liking the dagger, despite the abyss of labor. I remember I gave it to someone, so, most likely, someone still has it in Penza. Then I made a bronze mirror for my future wife, and she really liked it. But I had to clean it very often. And now, after so many years, I am again turning to this same topic and writing about it... Amazing!
It is clear that Neil tried to reproduce, if not the entire typology of Sandars swords, then at least the most impressive examples from it.
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